🔗 Share this article

Each self-inflicted death in which the victim had experienced abuse at home must be treated as a possible homicide, according to calls from advocates who seek to hold abusers accountable for the devastating consequences of their actions.

This step is essential because police and prosecutors are not doing enough to bring perpetrators to justice in cases of self-inflicted death following family violence.

“In case after case, there is systemic and structural failure, particularly within the legal system, to examine these deaths with the seriousness they deserve,” stated a leader of a campaign group during a significant gathering in Westminster earlier this week.

The meeting, organized by a organization leading a “Suicide is Homicide” campaign to advocate for change in the criminal justice system, brought together families who had suffered bereavement to suicide following domestic abuse.

Personal Stories of Loss

One mother experienced the death of her child Chloe Holland in spring 2023. Before her death, the young woman had reported her former partner to police, providing a lengthy recorded statement as evidence about his conduct.

Following her passing, the perpetrator was convicted of manipulative and domineering conduct and jailed for 41 months. He was subsequently sentenced for three years and seven months after a second woman stepped up to disclose that she had been in a violent and abusive relationship with him.

In the wake of her loss, the parent chose to advocate for a new law to bring perpetrators accountable; yet she then realized that laws were existing, they just weren’t often being used to secure prosecutions.

“I concluded it was not a fresh legislation I required as existing laws were already there, and after finding out how much my child had been failed before her death by the authorities and numerous services, they had to do their job properly, and things needed to change,” she said.

“Over 47 families have found me and just a handful of us have had a guilty verdict,” she continued. “I was so shocked to see so many families who have been fighting the police and prosecution service for a long time and getting no justice for their child or brother or sister and didn’t have a voice in case it affected inquiries that weren’t possibly going anywhere.”

Further Heartbreaking Account

One mother’s daughter her 30-year-old daughter passed away in May 2017, in what she called “the final act of violence” in a prolonged pattern of mistreatment.

“Hannah was energetic, she was caring,” she stated. “She was full of promise, and she was an exceptional, deeply devoted mum to her kids, and she took her own life after 24 months in a partnership where she was methodically broken down by her partner,” she said.

“She was physically beaten, she was psychologically tortured, she was dominated and broken down gradually until she could not see a path ahead. The individual who caused this walked free, because we call it suicide, we conclude the case and we proceed.

“Yet I was unable to continue,” she remarked, “and I haven’t been able to move on. Honestly, Hannah did not merely take her own life. She was murdered. She was killed slowly and deliberately over a 24-month span, and when I approached the authorities, when I begged them to look into what he had done to her, I was told that there was no action that they could do.

“There was no investigation into her passing. The domestic violence fatality analysis, which I had to fight for, required five years and changed nothing. A four day inquest determined death by suicide, notwithstanding huge evidence over a very traumatic multi-day session of domestic abuse and shortcomings by various agencies.”

The mother told the meeting that for eight years she has “struggled against a establishment that refuses to see what is right in front of it”.

She emphasized the suicide is homicide movement was vital “since when someone takes their own life after they’ve suffered domestic abuse, we have to examine it for what it really is, which is homicide.

“We must apply the laws we currently have effectively and it really isn’t happening at the moment, and we need to hold abusers accountable for driving their victims to death.

“We have the laws. We require determination, we need police to investigate properly. We need the prosecution authority to take legal action. We need the judiciary to understand that words and control can kill equally to physical force and arms.”

Government Reaction

At a second meeting in the House of Commons, chaired by a Labour MP, and including the safeguarding minister, the bereaved relatives again shared their experiences.

A parliamentary under-secretary informed the assembly: “Such fatalities are often dismissed as if they were their decision, they opted for this, when, reality, these were the culmination of actually, another person’s abuse, and these aren’t isolated stories.”

“Our law is broken, we know that,” she stated. “Especially around homicide or manslaughter, it is piecemeal. It lacks statutory basis regardless, it has been developed with traditional legal customs for centuries, and it is outdated, quite frankly, given the society we inhabit today.

“I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be easy to resolve. It is extremely complicated and challenging, particularly when you consider the issue of homicide, but we recognize that it needs to be looked at.”

Legal Authority Comment

A representative for the prosecution service said: “Family violence is a heinous crime and our prosecutors are regularly instructed to evaluate homicide allegations in self-inflicted death instances where there is a known context of domestic abuse or other manipulative conduct.

“We have in the past prosecuted a several individuals for leading to the fatality of a partner they abused, encompassing in cases which are ongoing.

“We are also working with police and other parties to guarantee these types of crimes are well-understood – so that we can bring perpetrators to justice for the complete scope of their wrongdoings.”